Summer Saturday Activities

We did a lot of stuff today, so I thought I would share that along with some pictures. Eric has gotten a little spoiled when it comes to breakfast. I'm afraid I started it when I made something for breakfast almost every weekday I'm off work, and on most Saturdays. This morning, when I asked him what he wanted for breakfast, he replied, "I'd like something special like Starbucks or maybe waffles." At the time, Patrick had taken over the kitchen for brisket preparations (see below), so waffles were out of the question--that meant Starbucks.

Patrick was busy and Natalie was "feeling lazy", although both of them gave me requests on what to bring back for them from Starbucks. On the way, I was telling Eric that I needed to get a picture of my new car before it rains. He said, "What if it rains today?" It wasn't going to rain today, but he had a point, so I went ahead and got a picture of the car with Eric in front of it when we got to Starbucks.

Isn't it pretty? It's a 2012 Lexus RX350 that we bought from Carmax this past Wednesday. I've been driving my old 2004 Lexus RX330 since the car accident in February. Patrick finally said it was okay to get me another car after we paid that tuition bill for Anthony recently.

At about 10am, I went to Lifetime Fitness by myself. Originally, Natalie had planned on going with me. She is still on her exercise kick and has gone to the gum almost every day (except for the day she had physical therapy). She had a headache, and felt guilty for letting me go by myself, but she really wasn't up to it. I knew that I must be dedicated to my own current diet/exercise kick, because I actually went to the gym by myself. I hate going to the gym by myself, but I really wanted to go to the Cardio Kickboxing class this morning. No regrets.

Alex was up by the time I got home, and his friends had gone home. Patrick did some more brisket prep (again, see below), then we went to see the new Ant-Man movie at 1:30pm. We all really enjoyed it, and I have to admit that I got almost more enjoyment watching the kids' reactions to parts of the movie than watching the movie itself. We've seen a lot of movies in the theatre this summer and I enjoy it every time. This is probably the first time where we didn't get any snacks, though. Alex's friend Jeremy works at the theatre we saw the movie at, and we got to say hi to him.

The above photo is that brisket I was talking about. Patrick started prepping it last night, and continued this morning then afternoon. At about 5pm, it was done, and it was good.

Alex had another friend come over tonight, Andrew, so we had some help eating the brisket. Meanwhile, Patrick was watching the CONCACAF Gold Cup Quarterfinals game between the US and Cuba. He was happy that he didn't miss the first 15 minutes of the game this time. We had missed the first 15 minutes of the Women's World Cup Final between the US and Japan and missed the first 4 US goals. In this game, Patrick got to see two goals in the first 15 minutes.

Now for an explanation of these last two photos. Natalie came to me and said that she really loved her outfit that she was wearing today, and asked if I wanted to take a picture. My first thought was, "Who is this child?!!" My daughter would never come to me asking for me to take a picture of her. Heck, none of my children would ever ask me to take a photo of them, even Eric, who at least humors me by smiling when I take pictures of him.

Natalie insisted that she really loved her outfit and wanted a picture. All the items were recent purchases except for the sweater, which I bought for her last year from Hollister. My answer, "Of course!" I didn't want to scare her away by pulling out my big DSLR, so I used the far less intimidating and ever available iPhone. When Patrick saw us taking a picture (he had been in the background watching the soccer game), she gave him a hug and of course I took that opportunity to take a picture of both of them. Love these two!